CTS INTERVIEW ON 7th JANUARY AT HYDERABAD

[sridhar]

Test Location : David memorial College, Hyderabad

Hi friends,

Here is Nagarjuna Reddy, completed MCA from Osmania University , Hyderabad . Just undergone the recruitment process with Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) and got selected finally. This is just my second attempt for JOB. Prior to this, I’ve attended the TCS process and been rejected in the HR interview. The important dates for me with CTS were as follows…

Hall Ticket Received: 01/01/2007 .

Written test: 06/01/2007 . Results announced: same day.
Interview: 07/01/2007 .

Final results announced: 11/01/2007 .

And now I’m here to share my CTS experiences with all of you and to give some important points to get into CTS by cracking the recruitment process.

The process with CTS is as usual. First of all, written test and then the Tech+HR round of interview. Strictly speaking friends, for the written test, we need not require preparation at all. If we just go through the type of questions that we may face in the test, by following the previous papers, its more than enough to say. I.e. we should prepare our self to expect such type of questions in the written test. As for myself is concerned, I’ve prepared for just one day for the written test and one more day for the interview. This one-day too more than enough for us, provided you are good at English.

Merit Trac, a consultancy for conducting such aptitude tests on behalf of CTS, conducted the written test. When we enter into the test hall, we’ll be given an answer sheet. In that, we need to fill some details like our academic career percentages (Semester wise), strengths, hobbies, software proficiency and expectations from CTS etc details. To know about all these details clearly, go through some of the papers available on this great job site.

Based on the details that U’ve provided here, U’ll be assigned to various panels in the interview, if you’ve cleared your written. And I recommend you to be cautious while writing the software that you know under the software orientation column, since in the interview, you’ll be asked questions from these subjects only.

So, its recommended to go to the written test by preparing answers for all these questions in good English, because, this is going to serve a lot in the further proceedings with CTS. The same answer sheet will be there with the CTS people until you receive your offer letter. Even in the interview, one of my friend has faced one situation. The conversation is..

Int: how many marks you are expecting from your written test?

Friend: I can’t say exactly, but it may just cross the cutoff, i.e 35 or 36.

Int: No, We’ll be selecting you based on the explanations that you’ve given in the answer sheet for our questions. Further we don’t have any cutoff marks for the written test. (Even though it is not true that no cutoff, but there can be a minimal cutoff of 20 to 25 depending on your academic record, I personally think)

See friends, how much importance is there for those explanations in the answer sheet.

And coming to the interview section:

Mine was asked questions from JAVA mainly. Those who don’t know JAVA can leave that particular section of my interview experience. No need to worry about it. On that day, there are 15 interview panels totally, each consisting of only one member. Our interviews were held in the Vanenburg IT Park auditorium. It’s a surprise for us, since we expected that the interviews will be conducted in the cabins, but it didn’t happened for us.

Coming to my interview part, everybody says that, it is tech + HR interview. But mine was asked only Tech questions in the interview. Not even a single HR question, since I’m an MCA, I think and also depending on the panel member. So, it’s better to be prepared to face even such kind of interviews, in advance. The entire conversation was as follows.

Int: (As soon as I go to him n wished) take your seat Mr. Nagarjuna Reddy. Tell me about yourself

Me: (Routine question) done.

Int: what r Ur negative points?

Me: told all the –ve points as it is, which I’ve written in the answer sheet of my written test without any mistakes. (while I’m giving answer for this Q’s, the interviewer is keep looking at my answer sheet. It means, those CTS people are cross checking the answers in the interview)

Int: you are an MCA, so you may have done your project work. Tell me about the software that U’ve used for that.

Me: the title of my project is……… and I’ve developed it using servlets n JSP technologies of J2EE.

(As soon as I given this answer, he started posing questions from Java and J2EE)

Int: what is a servlet?

Me: done.

Int: what is a web server?

Me: done n also told about BEA weblogic n Tomcat web servers.

Int: where we’ll place the war file in Tomcat?

Me. The name of the folder is ‘applications’

Int: in Tomcat................? But what abt weblogic?

Me: (got confused that time n told) ‘applications’ is in weblogic and I don’t remember it for Tomcat.

Int: what is the life cycle of servlet?

Me: done. (Told abt init(), service(), destroy() )

Int: when the destroy() will be called?

Me: given wrong answer. (by observing his facial expressions) I’m not sure about it.

Int: when the doGet() and doPost() methods will be used?

Me: sorry, I’m not getting it now, and I’m sorry to say that I’ve forgotten this.

Int: what is HttpServlet and GenericServlet?

Me: done.

Int: what is JSP?

Me: done. (that’s all about questions regarding my project work n JAVA, then he jumped into C++)

Int: what are the differences between C++ and JAVA?

Me: (Myself keep telling the main differences. But he’s asking new questions from my each answer) Machine independence, pure object oriented, Byte code etc

(when I told a difference, he is keep on asking some more questions on that. Those questions are like……).

Int: How can you say that C++ is not pure object oriented and JAVA is pure object oriented?

Me: done.

Int: what is byte code? And what is the extension of this file?

Me: done. (Also I told that C++ will produce an executetable file with the extension ‘.exe’)

Int: is ‘.exe’ the extension of C++ executable file? No, its not.

Me: No, I’m sure about it. (Said confidently and stressed it)

Int: what are OOPS concepts?

Me: done.

(friends! an unexpected incident happened here while giving answer for this Q. My mobile was kept on ringing as I’ve forgotten to switch it off. I’ve taken it out immediately. Then the interviewer asked me to switch off the mobile).

Int: what is compiler and interpreter?

Me: done.

Int: which type of language JAVA is? Whether it is compiled lang or interpreted lang?

Me: told that JAVA is both compiled and interpreted language. (some more discussion over it)

Int: what is overloading n overriding?

Me: done with examples on the paper. (This is all about C++ and JAVA)

Int: what is DBMS?

Me: done.

Int: what are the types of DBMS?

Me: told abt DBMS, RDBMS, ORDBMS.

Int: which type of DBMS is Oracle?

Me: told about the versions like, Oracle 8i – RDBMS, Oracle 9i – ORDBMS.

Int: is Oracle a DBMS or RDBMS or ORDBMS?

Me: Prior to 8i version, all are DBMS only, I think.

Int: what is the difference between Join and Union ?

Me: Not given exact difference. He was not satisfied with my answer. Then he left the topic by not continuing questions on it. (That’s all about DBMS)

Int: what is OSI?

Me: (felt little bit confused with ISO and OSI, and given wrong answer but given the correct answer after some struggle).

Int: what are the layers of OSI?

Me: told all the layers without any problem.

(Also the interviewer asked me some more questions from Operating Systems lilke, memory mngt, Paging, Demand Paging, Deadlocks, necessary n prevention conditions, Thrashing etc. No need to worry about. All are basic questions only)

Int: (Finally) OK. You can leave.

Me: thank you. (and started back, but myself prepared to ask some questions and turned back to him) when can I expect the results of this interview? (even though it is not the question that I wanted to ask him.)

Int: our coordinators will say you. Ask them.

One more funny incident happened here friendz! while I’m coming back after completing my interview, the interviewer called me back and asked the following Q.

Int: You’ve specified that smoking is one of your negative point. How it can be?

Me: (As I’ve earned Masters Degree in giving lecture on this topic, I continued saying like this) Even from my child hood, I used to ask everybody not to smoke. But as the days are passing on, I’ve started smoking two years ago. Initially, I used to smoke a cigarette for 2 to 3 weeks, later it became 1 for every week, and now I’ve been smoking a cigarette on every alternate day. So, when I compare my present opinion with that of my childhood’s, definitely it is a negative point in me. (He seems to be convinced with my explanation, but friendz, this answer didn’t fetch me the job. This is just like a conversation between both of us. Remember that)

This is all about my interview pals. Here, the surprise for me is, during the whole conversation, I was not at all asked any HR questions, even though I’ve prepared a lot for it, and even the duration was 35 mins for me. But for every others, it was just 15 to 20 mins on an average on that day.

I was little bit curious over the final result. The results were announced after 4 days. Butt with God’s grace and sufficient luck in this early New Year, I got selected finally. I think that, I was selected since I was been tested in almost all technical subjects.

So, no need to be panic of interviews friends. We should be as cool as we can. In the interview, we should feel that we are been discussing with our friends. No more formalities, no sirs, no madams. All those are not really required and also they don’t expect us to salute them with the words SIR/MADAM. Even if you are not comfortable with any salutation, you can call them with their name or with the word ‘Boss’. Remember it.

I think, this info will help at least some of you aspirants.